260 APPLICATION OF PRINCIPLES. 



increases proportionally ; and this rrfay be carried on 

 till the branch perishes. In training, this fact is of 

 the utmost yalue in enabling the gardener to regu- 

 late the symmetry of a tree. It however by no 

 means follows that, because of two continuous 

 branches, one growing erect and the other forced 

 into a downward direction, the latter may die, that all 

 branches trained downwards will die. On the con- 

 trary, an inversion of their natural position is of so 

 little consequence to their healthiness, that no effect 

 seems in general to be produced beyond that of 

 causing a slow circulation, and the formation of 

 flowers. Hence the directing of branches downwards 

 is one of the commonest and most successful contri- 

 vances employed by gardeners to render plants fruit- 

 ful. Mr. Knight was the first to recommend the 

 practice in the following account of his recovery of 

 an old and worthless Pear tree : 



" An old St. Germain Pear tree, of the spurious 

 kind, had been trained in the fan form, against a 

 north-west wall in my garden, and the central 

 branches, as usually happens in old trees thus train- 

 ed, had long reached the top of the wall, and had be- 

 come wholly unproductive. The other branches 

 afforded but very little fruit, and that never acquiring 

 maturity was consequently of no value; so that it 

 was necessary to change the variety, as well as to 

 render the tree productive. To attain these purposes, 

 every branch which did not want at least twenty de- 

 grees of being perpendicular was taken out at its 

 base ; and the spurs upon every other branch, which 



